The Wastebin
by Tari F
Summary: A collection of abandoned stories. Crossovers, oneshots, ideas, whatever. All my dead stuff goes here.
1. Welcome to the Bin

**_The Wastebin

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_**_Tari's leftovers_  
_(inspired by weebee's **The Vault**)

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_

_Welcome to  
**The Wastebin**,_

_  
a place where  
dead and abandoned  
stories and ideas  
are layed to rest._

_Feel free  
to use or continue  
any story or idea  
contained within._

_Any story contained herein  
is abandoned and will not  
be resumed at any point._

* * *

Just please credit me!  
(Or at least let me know, so I can read it!)

**Reasoning**: I've got a bunch of old drafts of various things that I wanted to get rid of, so I figured I might as well post 'em.


	2. Till the End

**'Till the End**  
_By Tari_

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**Chapter 1**

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"Tarou! Now's not a good time for this!" Ranma rolled backwards as Tarou, in his enormous cursed form, attempted to squish him.

Nodoka Saotome stuck her head out of her front door and spent a moment watching her son fight Tarou, then called out, "Son! My guests will be here shortly. Finish up and go take a shower!"

If he had been able to spare the time to slap his palm to his forehead and cry, Ranma might have done so. Unfortunately, or fortunately for Ranma, as he didn't really want to cry in his male form, Tarou didn't give him any spare time as they continued to duke it out with one another.

The Saotome residence had become a small warzone, with pockmarks, craters, and debris everywhere, though most of it was caused purely by Tarou's cursed form. Ranma groaned internally as he dodged another of Tarou's strikes and quickly retaliated with a quick uppercut and ki-blast to the larger fighter's stomach.

His mother had invited guests over—guests who weren't used to the all-out brawls that were daily occurrences in Nerima. He had tried to talk Tarou out of fighting, but the other boy had simply pulled a small flask from his belt, splashed himself with cold water, and begun his attack.

"Yup!" a girl's voice reached Ranma's ears as he fought, "My mom's been friends with Mrs. Saotome for a pretty long time and…" Oh, crap. The guests had arrived.

Ranma grimaced as the speaker, a teenaged blonde girl with her hair done up in two huge ponytails, let out a frightened scream. "IT'S A YOUMA!"

Both Ranma and Tarou paused their fight to blink. They glanced at each other, utterly confused, then shrugged it off and continued their fight. Ranma noted absently that the girl had probably either fainted or run away. He couldn't hear her making any more noise. Ranma spared a moment to glance towards where the girl had been standing. _'Heh'_, he thought as he concentrated on Tarou again_, 'Guess I was right. No one there.'_

He and Tarou ignored the energy spike from around the corner of the block. They were almost done with their fight.

"Stop! Whatever you are, we won't let you hurt that boy! I am the Agent of Love and Justice, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon! In the name of the moon, I will punish you!"

Ranma and Tarou paused and blinked again, then swiveled their heads to stare at the wall surrounding the house. Another blond-haired girl dressed in blue and red stood there, striking a pose that rivaled Kuno's in sheer corniness. In fact, since her pose lacked the special effects that Kuno's did, it could almost be said that her pose was _more_ corny than the deluded boy's, however unlikely it seemed.

Strange. Ranma squinted at the girl's head. Those two ponytails seemed awfully familiar. He opened his mouth to ask, but was pre-empted by a number of female voices.

"Sailor Mercury!" A girl dressed in blue jumped onto the wall.

"Sailor Mars!"A girl in red joined her.

"Sailor Jupiter!" Followed by green.

"Sailor Venus!" And finally orange.

Okay, now Ranma was getting seriously weirded out, even by Nerima standards. He couldn't think of anyone with as bad a fashion sense as the girls arrayed before him, with the obvious exception of the other Kuno. There were five girls standing on the property wall in color-coded outfits that looked more fit for wet-dreams than for any sort of actual everyday wear.

Ranma blinked as a disturbing thought surfaced. "Um…" he began, "You're not new fiancées, are you?"

"No!" four voices screamed.

"…does he seem familiar?" questioned the fifth.

"Concentrate, Jupiter!"

"…and why isn't that youma doing anything?"

The two interrupted fighters finally abandoned all hope of continuing their fight, opting instead to simply boggle at the absurdity of the situation. The girls had hopped off the wall and huddled together, whispering amongst themselves. Occasionally, one of them would lift her head to stare at Tarou (who was quickly getting bored) and then drop back down to whisper some more.

Ranma resisted the urge to yawn. He really did. After some struggle, he calmed down. And then yawned.

A spike of energy behind Tarou caught his attention. He turned his head just in time to see Tarou backhand another Senshi, this one with long green hair, across the yard, through the wall and a passing car, and straight into a recently repaired pole that had an oft ignored sign on it: "Do Not Hug."

The older Senshi groaned and struggled to right herself while sporting a killer headache. The pole cracked and swiveled downward to smack into the woman's head, finally sending her into blissful unconsciousness.

The casual bashing of one of their teammates seemed to solve whatever dilemma the group of Senshi had been discussing. "He attacked Pluto! It doesn't matter if he's not a youma, he's definitely not on _our_ side!" The girls split up and began to fan out in front of the now entirely bored Tarou.

Almost as one, the four girls with more commonplace hairstyles suddenly let loose a wave a magic.

"Sparkling Wide Pressure!"

"Venus Love-Me Chain!"

"Burning Mandala!"

"Shabon Spray!"

Tarou blinked and growled at Ranma before hopping into the air and flying away. Below him, the four magical attacks passed through the space he'd just occupied and continued unabated until they reached the next solid object in their path: the Saotome residence.

Ranma gaped as his mother's house was, once again, smashed apart. Nodoka, who had been working in the kitchen, was left standing in the open, surrounded by a sink and a large pile of debris. A knife slipped out of her hand and landed with a quiet thump amongst the debris as she stared in shock at the remnants of her house.

A moan escaped from Ranma's lips, but by the time he spun around, all of the Senshi, even the one that had been knocked unconscious, had already vanished. Ranma let out a small growl. Damaging his mother's house he could understand, since they had been _trying_ to fight Tarou, but that they didn't even have the courtesy to apologize was something that was grating on his nerves. Hell, even the Nerima gang had apologized when they'd destroyed his mom's house!

He sighed, then turned to his still shell-shocked parent. He grimaced at the expression on her face before an interesting thought came to mind. How willing would Nabiki be, he wondered, to help him track down those Sailor Senshi? (Move to later?)

He shook his head to clear his thoughts, then made his way over to his mother. "Mom?" After a short wait, it became apparent that no response was forthcoming, so he tried again. "Mom?" He waved his hand in front of her face.

"Mom! Look! Grandbabies!"

Nodoka snapped her head around, her eyes sweeping over the ruins of her house in search of the much longed for grandchildren. Her eyes came to rest upon her son and she quickly realized that he'd tricked her. She opened her mouth to berate him, and then the full brunt of the situation hit her.

"My house…"

Ranma winced as his mom sank to her knees among the remnants of her house.

"Hello?" A head peeked around the hole in the wall, two blonde ponytails trailing behind it. "Um…"

Nodoka continued to mumble incoherently as she surveyed what used to be her house, entirely missing the greeting. Ranma, on the other hand, had noticed and quickly hopped over to the hole. He glanced at the girl on the other side of the wall and noted two things. First, she was the girl who he assumed had run away earlier. Second, to his confusion, there was an expression of guilt on her face. An older couple, probably the girl's parents, became visible as they stepped in front of the hole and took in the scene.

"Oh, wow," a voice piped up, and Ranma's eyes swiveled downwards to settle on its source, a younger boy. "What the heck happened here?"

"Um," came Ranma's eloquent response. He blinked a few times, then asked, "Are you the guests?"

The older woman nodded. "I'm Ikuko Tsukino, and this is my family. I'm friends with Nodoka Saotome, and I'm pretty sure that this is where her house should be…"

Ranma nodded in return and explained, "You're right. This is where her house is, but it's sorta broken and stuff right now." He absently noted that the blonde-haired girl grimaced as he mentioned the state of his house.

"Oh," he started, "I'm Ranma Saotome. It's, um, nice to meet you." He sketched a short bow to the girl's parents, then continued, "I don't think we can, uh, really have guests right now, you know?"

"Yes, yes… of course not." The elder Tsukino woman glanced around before asking, "Could I ask where your mom is?"

"She's back there…" Ranma turned to wave in his mom's direction. "I don't think she's taken this very well, especially since her house just finished getting rebuilt a few months ago 'n' all…"

"Can I… talk to her?"

Ranma nodded and stepped aside, allowing Ikuko to pass through the hole in the wall. She stepped carefully over the debris as she made her way to Nodoka. The rest of the Tsukino family began to introduce themselves in the background.

"I'm Usagi! Nice to meet you!" The blonde-haired girl smiled nervously as she looked at the ruined house.

"And I'm Kenji Tsukino, Usagi's father. This kid," he motioned towards the young boy, "is Shingo, her younger brother." He smiled warmly at Ranma before glancing up as his wife and Nodoka walked towards them.

Ikuko moved over to her family and began speaking with them. Her husband nodded a few times and, after a short discussion, she gave Nodoka a thumbs-up.

"Ranma," the Saotome matriarch began, "I'm going to be staying with the Tsukino family for a while, since…" She glanced towards the remains of her house, and Ranma nodded. It was obvious why she was going to be staying with another family for some time. "Son, I think it's best that you head back to the Tendo's for now."

Ranma nodded again. He had come to his mom's house for a one-week break, at her insistence, but it looked like his short vacation had just ended prematurely.

--oOo--

Less than an hour later, Ranma was seated on the train that would take him away from Juban and back to the crazy district of Nerima.

He sighed and glanced out the window beside him. He had been looking forward to a break from the craziness, but it had followed him into Juban and quickly cut short his hopeful respite from the mess that was his life. He sighed again and leaned back in his chair as he began to review the latest fight in his mind's eye.

His fight against Tarou wasn't really worth reviewing, since neither of them had learned any new moves since the last time they'd fought, and since they never finished the fight, courtesy of the Sailor Senshi.

Ranma reached out to grab a water bottle from his pack, but his hand closed around empty air as he recalled that his pack had been blown to smithereens by the same magic that had torn his mom's house down. His mental review progressed into the "fight" the Senshi had against Tarou.

There obviously hadn't been a real battle, but Ranma was still curious as to how the Senshi had launched their attacks. His memory didn't provide any real clues as to the answer, though it did let him rule out the possibility of the attacks being ki-based.

He groaned as an image of the Senshi standing in their corny poses popped into his mind—their poses were already bad enough, but the outfits they wore made the poses that much worse.

**

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**

**AN (original): **I couldn't figure out whether to say "Bishoujo Senshi" or "Beautiful Sailor Suited Soldier"… and I think I've mentioned it before, and if not, then I am now: I have yet to, and probably never will, watch or read the SM series. I'm working purely off of second-hand info or internet research. P

Another story that I'm working on, tentatively titled _Rollback_, might need more in-depth knowledge. / I dunno how I'm gonna get that info.

I hadn't actually drawn up an outline for this tale (_Rollback_ has an outline, but it's only detailed for the first chapter. It's vague from there on till the end of the story…), so if there are plot holes, I guess I just totally overlooked them while I was writing this piece. Sorry 'bout that. )

Truthfully, this story began as a simple bit of confusion on my part. I was mulling over that ever-pondered question of how people never figured out who the Senshi were. Halfway through my musing, I realized that it was pure insanity for people to not be able to figure out who there were, and something I discovered when I decided that (somewhat accidentally) led me to begin writing a oneshot. That oneshot became this.

Of course… it's spiraled away from my initial short story and into a multi-part fic.

Till next time,

_-Tari_


	3. Home is Abenobashi

_**Note: I suggest watching Abenobashi Mahou Shotengai **__**（アベノ橋魔法商店街）**__**before you try to read this, as I'm writing a direct continuation to the end of that anime.**_

**Home is Abenobashi**  
_by Tari_

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**Prologue – A Dream Called Home**

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A small ring of green energy floated in the middle of a vast white land, unmoving. Two children stood in its center, a young boy and girl. The boy, who was dressed in a large white robe that was draped over a set of oversized violet hakama pants and wearing a tall hat more fit for eras long gone, plodded steadily forward and yet did not move. His head, covered by a tall black traditional hat, was hung low and his normally fluffy blue hair fell limply across his face as he continued to shuffle forward.

The other child, a young girl in a plain white dress, simply stood by his side, looking into the distance. She shook her head slightly, her long hair, braided into two bunches, swaying with her movements. There was a sigh, and then she crossed her arms behind her back, a somewhat irritated expression was etched upon her face.

She tilted her head to look at the shuffling boy. "Hey..." she said after a moment, "how far are we gonna' walk?"

"Oh," the boy responded in a dejected tone, "Arumi, you don't have to walk, 'cause it won't make a difference."

Arumi leaned over and looked at the boy as he continued to walk, "Then why're you walkin'?" she asked, irritably.

The boy stopped moving. "Darnit," he let out, his shoulders slumping further down, "what Dad said was right. This thing really _is_ nothing more than a kid's toy." The girl shot a glance at the translucent green ring before the boy continued, "It's not gonna' take us to New York or Lake Akan or anythin' else real." He slowly sank into a crouching position as he finished speaking, his hands hanging between his legs.

"So," Arumi said quietly, "that open lot we were in…" A look of understanding passed over her face, and she gazed up at the never-ending white sky as she continued her thought. "It was the one and only true reality..." She trailed off as she recalled something that she had been told while standing in the lot.

"_Arumi, like you said, this is the correct world. If you walk to the other side of the arcade from here, the real Grill Pelican will be there. You're all grown up now, so you understand, don't you?"_

Her eyes widened as realization began to set in. The vigil, the mourning, her own question—who had died? It all made sense, now, and everything pointed to a horrifying truth.

"Arumi," the boy mumbled apologetically, "I'm sorry."

She shook herself mentally, then reached a hand down to the boy. "Let's go home," she said, smiling softly, "to our Abenobashi."

He nodded and, moments later, the two twelve-year old children found themselves standing in the center of a complicated rune. It slowly lifted into the air and began humming with power as it spun around them. "All things extant in this world," the two children chorused in unison, their hands clasped tightly together as they stood back-to-back, "gods of Heaven, gods of Earth, let them be as they should be..."

"...thus it shall be!" The rune began to flare with power, and Arumi finally allowed herself to let go of her hold on her emotions.

"Sasshi," she whispered, her sad, yet grateful voice somehow carrying over the noise of the whirling rune. The boy blinked and made an acknowledging grunt. "...thank you." Her voice carried a tone of finality to it, as the tears finally slipped from her eyes and were swept into the air by the wind the spell was creating.

Sasshi froze as he noticed Arumi's tears drifting by on the magical breeze. _"Arumi already knows. She knows Granpa Masa won't be there if we go back..." _His threw his head back as his realization struck him, and let out a yell. "Why!? Why am I a kid right now!? Why am I an ignorant and powerless grade school kid!? Mister!"

The rune let off a burst of smoke and ground to a halt as Sasshi continued to yell into the sky. "People's souls exist for a span of tens of thousands of years, right!? Then why the heck am I a kid right now?! Something's wrong here!" He lowered his head a little as he continued. "I want to make Arumi happy right now! I can't be a kid! I've got things I have to do!" His hands tightened around Arumi's as he yelled. "I'll quit bein' a kid for Arumi, 'cause I care 'bout her!"

"Sasshi!" Arumi quickly twisted her head around, her tears escaping into the air as she did so, and stared at Sasshi.

"Mister!" Sasshi screamed, ignoring Arumi's cry, "Eutus! Abe no Seimei! Answer me! Where's the grown up me!?" The rune suddenly flared back to life and condensed upon the young boy.

The world burst into a bright white light that faded to black. Sasshi, unconscious, drifted face down through the dark void. A planet covered in flowers suddenly snapped into view underneath his body. "Damn," an older man grumbled, his blue hair draped loosely over his shoulder as he made his way through the flower fields to the drifting boy. "This kid's unbelievable. How dare he summon me?" He flipped the boy over and stared at him for a moment, then chuckled. "Well, it can't be helped, since I've already been summoned. Guess this Mister's goin' to do a little work here."

He quickly ran his hands through a brief, yet complex series of seals, and the flowery world was replaced by a clear blue river that flowed into the endless distance. He slowly lowered Sasshi into the waters, and blinked when he saw the image that was left on the river's surface. His lips quirked into a smile. "Sasshi's true identity is the Onmyou Minister Yasuchika?" He let out a short burst of laughter. "Well, I had no idea your fate was linked like that. It's so classic, it's not quite funny, though." He let out another burst of laughter, then suddenly vanished.

Sasshi stirred beneath the water's surface and slowly sat up, his body seeming to merge with the image upon the water as he broke free of the river. He quickly stood up, unmindful of the fact that his clothes, once oversized, now fit perfectly. The newly created adult and yet-to-exist minister raised his hands into a single seal and released a spell that immediately began to distort reality.

The world pulsed, stretched, compressed, and ultimately vanished altogether, along with Sasshi and the universe he knew.

* * *

A breeze blew softly through the Abenobashi Shopping Arcade, rustling the leaves on the numerous trees. A cat meowed contentedly as it lay languidly atop a pelican figure attached to the roof of a restaurant. Across the roof from the cat, a door slowly creaked open, and a thin, old face peered out from the crack. "I knew it," the old face grumbled as the door swung wide open. 

An old man stepped into the sunlight that bathed the restaurant's roof, dressed in a typical chef's outfit, though he had declined to wear the hat. He stepped towards the cat, a short broom carried in his right hand. "That bastard's sleepin' there again!"

"Hey, get down!" He marched to the edge of the roof and stared at the cat lying lazily a few feet further out. "You bastard!" He growled and stepped over the roof's edge onto a wooden platform that extended from the building. "Are you listening to me!?" He stomped over to the pelican figure and began to poke the cat with his broom.

"Why, you little—" He grabbed the metal poles supporting the platform, and subsequently the pelican, and began to shake them. The cat refused to move and instead yawned at the old man.

A moment later, a stool had been placed behind the pelican figure and the old man was standing on it, reaching for the cat. "Stupid cat! Get offa' that! That's the precious bird spirit!" It was just a _little_ too far for him to reach. He shook his head and placed a hand upon one of the metal poles as a brace as he prepared to lean out even further.

"Arumi, you're too fast!" A voice echoed through the streets below the restaurant as he began to lean out for the cat.

"You're just too slow, Sasshi!" A voice happily called back. A moment later, two sets of footsteps raced into the alley under the pelican statue. The old man paused partway into his attempt to reach the cat to glance down at the two new arrivals.

"Granpa Masa," Sasshi mumbled from down below as he tilted a cowboy hat up and stared at the old man on the roof. A simple verdant t-shirt and brown shorts had replaced his strange, traditional clothing.

The cat suddenly yawned and hopped off of the pelican figure. Masa let out a relieved sigh as he stepped back onto the wooden platform and removed his hand from the metal pole. "Arumi! Sasshi!" he called to the two kids in the alley.

Arumi smiled and waved up at her grandfather. "Granpa Masa, there's actually somethin' we want to ask 'bout..."

Sasshi stood to the side and watched the events play out, before finally smiling. Everything had turned out alright in the end, after all. Abenobashi was still thriving, the renovation would help make the shopping arcade larger, and, most importantly, Arumi had never experienced her grandfather's death.

Yes, all was right with the world.

* * *

A scant few blocks away, in a simple apartment building, Sasshi's father glanced up from the rice that he had been tending to. "That boy will never learn," he sighed out. "I already told him that Onmiyoudou magic was nothing but a toy for kids. There's nothing more to it." He shut off the rice cooker and fumbled around in a cupboard before grabbing a few bowls. "I hope he understands that soon," he said, scooping rice into a bowl. "This world must be very difficult on Arumi..." The rice scoop paused its motion momentarily, as Sasshi's father, suddenly disconcerted, turned to look out the window. 

"...wherever she's ended up."

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**AN (February 4th, '08):**

The basic story went that Ranma was Arumi, after being displaced from her world. The magic Sasshi used didn't change or rewrite the world, it just replaced things until it matched what Sasshi wanted. To make a world in which Arumi hadn't witnessed her grandfather's death, she had to be replaced by an earlier version of herself, thus displacing the real Arumi.

There was a long ending sequence that had been plotted out for this guy (in outline form, but it covered two thousand words or so), but I had no motivation to continue this story.

-Tari


End file.
